A SALUTE TO FOUR CHAPLAINS

INDRANEEL SUR ;Courant Staff WriterTHE HARTFORD COURANT

Off Greenland's shores, in the early morning hours of Feb. 3, 1943, German torpedoes sank the USS Dorchester, an Army transport ship.

Nearly 700 of the 900 men aboard were lost, but few have been commemorated as passionately as the ship's four chaplains. It was these counselors of faith, witnesses said later, who calmed the dying and gave their life jackets to other soldiers at the cost of their own lives.

For the 51st annual service requested in the chaplains' honor by the local American Legion chapter, members of the John Maciolek Post 154, about 150 parishioners, military veterans, and members of a local Boy Scout troop gathered Sunday during a Roman Catholic Mass at the Church of St. Adalbert.

The chaplains -- Catholic priest John P. Washington, Rabbi Alexander D. Goode, Methodist minister George L. Fox and Dutch Reformed minister Clark V. Poling -- have received tributes across the country. Some of their relatives helped form a Minnesota nonprofit, the Immortal Chaplains Foundation, that presents an annual "prize for humanity." A permanent memorial to the four also draws visitors in Valley Forge, Pa.

Though the chaplains did not have ties to Enfield, the annual service there is one of the largest local celebrations of the men. The Sunday morning event included a march and gun salute led by John Liro, an Enfield resident who served as a paratrooper at the Battle of the Bulge during World War II.

Veterans want to remember "the camaraderie that keeps everyone together" during events such as the Dorchester's sinking, said Paul Maynard, an Enfield resident and a Korean War veteran. The chaplains' solidarity during the crisis "proves that no one religion is better than another," he added.

The Rev. Edmund O'Brien, St. Adalbert's pastor, described the chaplains' act of self-sacrifice and the faith underlying it as "a remarkable, remarkable moment." He said in his sermon, "I can't think of a greater moment of generosity."

O'Brien compared the incident to the death of Maximillian Colby, who took the place of another man on an execution roster at a Nazi concentration camp and was later named a saint.

Jan P. Olszewski, a member of a Hartford-based group of Polish veterans who attended the Sunday event, has a miniature Christian cross set in a Jewish Star of David pinned to the hat he wears with his dress uniform purchased at the Valley Forge chapel. "I respect those chaplains who gave their lives for the young sailors," the Windsor Locks resident said.

The service also drew U.S. Rep. Nancy L. Johnson, R-6th District, who said the Enfield event is the most prominent one honoring the chaplains in her 44-town constituency. "It's not just a Mass, it's an inspiring celebration of what it takes to preserve freedom," she said.

Correction published 2/13/01. An article on Page B1 Monday about an Enfield service to honor four chaplains who died aboard an American ship in World War II misspelled the name of a Catholic saint. It is Maximilian Kolbe, not Maximillian Colby.

Correction published 2/13/01. An article on Page B1 Monday about an Enfield service to honor four chaplains who died aboard an American ship in World War II misspelled the name of a Catholic saint. It is Maximilian Kolbe, not Maximillian Colby.